Climax
by Rigel of Orion
Summary: The final battle between seventh year student Harry Potter and his arch-rival, Voldemort. Contains a bunch of spells of my own creation. Please R&R.
1. It Begins

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter, etc., etc.

The time had been arranged. The entire wizarding world knew it. A remote, empty region of wilderness had been chosen for the setting. There were no muggles for a hundred miles in every direction. Both participants knew where to go, and when. Everything had been prepared for. 

Harry Apparated into the deserted field at exactly noon. The bright sun was directly overhead, making the shadow-less scene seem ethereal and bizarre. This place was so silent it was frightening. The air was amazingly clear, allowing him to see for miles in all directions; of course, there was nothing to see. Sand, dirt, and small, struggling plants continued unendingly everywhere he looked. There was no sign of his opponent. 

Then, with a slight swishing sound, Voldemort appeared directly in front of Harry. He was robed in monotone black, from head to foot. The only his deathly white hands and ghostly face were visible under the yards of dark cloth that he was wearing. His cruel, red eyes met Harry's, and his thin lips pulled into an evil smile. "So. Here we are, Potter," his high, cold voice rang out. He was some twenty meters from where Harry was standing, but his voice carried clearly across the distance, chilling the boy's soul. 

"Let's do this, Voldemort," Harry snapped loudly, making sure he sounded confident. Apparently he failed.

Voldemort's shrill laughs echoed all around, piercing the oppressive silence that hung like a thick fog around the place. Whoever had selected this showdown site had chosen well. 

Harry had already decided to attack early and decisively; this was his time. He pointed his wand at the ground in front of the black figure and uttered the Reductor curse sharply, hoping to catch Voldemort off his guard. The ground in front of him exploded in a shower of sand, blasting the Dark Lord with debris. Voldemort instinctively brought his hands up to protect his face. Harry took this moment to strike; he summoned all of his will and all of his power, all seven years of his magical experiences, and forced them into two words. He pointed his wand and shouted, "_Avada Kedavra!_" 

The red beam of magic light shot out like a laser, but flew harmlessly past Voldemort, who had quickly dodged, and, before Harry could recover, shrieked "_Crucio!_"

Pain ripped through Potter's body, burning his skin and seeming to shred his insides apart. The curse was hellishly terrible, but not debilitating. Harry endured the insane agony and slowly raised his wand, stuttering out the word "_Stupefy._"

The curse hit Voldemort right in the stomach, as he had not been expecting it. He doubled over, the wind knocked out of him, breaking the Cruciatus curse on Harry, who leapt to his feet and cried "_Sagittarius Ignum!"_ From his wand burst a dozen fiery arrows, rushing toward the crouched form of the Dark Lord.

"_Saltus,_" muttered Voldemort, and he flew into the air, jumping high above the spot where he had just been as the arrows all dove into the sand. He landed several meters away, on his feet, and with a response curse ready. "_Incendio_," he screamed, sending a massive spray of white-hot flames spewing at Harry, who conjured up a large shield to protect himself. The flaming barrage ended, and Harry dropped the blackened metal to the group, gasping for air. Voldemort smiled again. 

"Tired yet, Potter?" And without a pause, he hollered out, "_Persolvere!_"

The ground around Harry instantly transformed into a thick liquid, dragging him down to his chest, and pulling him quickly lower. "_Funis_," yelled Harry, and a thick stream of rope shot from his wand, latching on to a large rock nearby the newly formed pool. Just as Harry would have been dragged under, he hoisted himself out of the mud, onto solid ground.

Voldemort howled with thin laughter as he launched another awful spell at Harry. "_Manus rapere_," he cried, and a giant, skeletal hand, pale and ghostly, appeared out of the air and seized Harry's body, and began to squeeze. The fingernails were long and sharpened, and they began to cut into his skin as the vice-like grip tightened, restricting air to his gasping lungs. With a final breath, Harry managed to puff out the word "_Gladius_." Instantly a long sword sprung from the tip of his wand, skewering the deathly hand and breaking its hold. Harry swung and chopped off two fingers, then pinned the hand to the ground, burying the sword deep in the phantom-like flesh. But at the moment that Harry glanced up to meet his foe again, Voldemort struck again with double force.

"_Serpensortia_," Voldemort shouted, and two huge snake were thrown through the air and attacked Harry, wrapping around his legs and arms, pinning his wand hand behind his back and tugging violently, making Harry wince in pain. But the snakes had accidentally aimed Harry's holly wand straight at a large plant creeping along the dusty ground. 

"_Anima!_" gasped Harry. A flash of green light sparkled around the plant, and then suddenly the long tendrils began clamoring up Harry's leg, growing around the two snakes tangled around Harry. The plants wrapped around the reptilian bodies and choked them, pulling them off and then continuing to grow, engulfing both animals in a matter of seconds. 

Voldemort had ceased laughing. In fact, his wicked grin had vanished as well. He rolled up his billowing sleeves and held his wand in attack position. "Time to die, Harry Potter."


	2. The Battle Rages On

Voldemort's magic lashed out in fury at Harry. A pounding rain of large fireballs pelted the area around his dodging form. They exploded on impact, sending burst of dust in all directions. In a final resort attempt to block them, Harry formed a loose magical shield around himself, deflecting the incoming spheres away. 

The Dark Lord, seeing Harry's success, began chanting ominously at the sand around him. A large mound began to lift from the earth, soon towering up and slimming into a vaguely human shape. "_Anima!_" commanded Voldemort, and the sand monster spun around and charged right toward Harry. 

Realizing that his shield would have no effect on this creature, Harry cancelled it and tried desperately to think of a good counter-spell to the sand beast, which was closing in on his defenseless body. At last he aimed his wand and shouted "_Solidus,_" turning the thing into a mass of stone.

Without missing a beat, Voldemort magically seized the frozen beast, and with the roar "_Lapiswasi_" pitched the statue across the sky straight at Harry. Harry, who knew that there was no time to dodge this bullet, carefully pointed his wand and yelled out the Reductor curse to blast the stone from the air. He succeeded, as was rewarding as falling shrapnel cascaded into the dirt a few meters in front of him. 

But his opponent was not nearly out of tricks yet. "_Vespertilio_!" said Voldemort, and a thick cloud of black smoke poured from his wand. It flew quickly through the air, morphing into a group of thick clumps, solidifying, and revealing itself as a huge crowd of giant vampire bats, flitting directly at Harry, who almost cried out in shock. He began yelling the Reductor curse over and over, trying to blast the bats out of the air. He only managed to hit a few, but there were still hundreds more. They were filling up his view, blocking out Voldemort completely. For a moment, Harry feared that his foe had fled the scene, but then he reminded himself that Voldemort was far too confident to run away from this fight. 

The bats continued to advance. Harry tried using the Impediment curse, but even than was ineffective. At last, just as they were upon him, the idea struck. "_Incendio!_" he cried, sending a wave of red flames shooting from his wand, spraying the bats and driving them away. They shrieked in pain as he torched them mercilessly, then finally retreated as his inferno overcame their attack. Voldemort, returned to sight, waved his hand, and they disappeared. 

Harry knew this was his chance to make a decisive strike. He found a large boulder nearby and Banished it, right at Voldemort. The rock was smashed to pieces by a massive fireball before it had even gotten half way to Voldemort, who then cursed Harry by screaming "_Petrificus Totalus!_" Harry felt his muscles freeze in place as he was put under the full body bind. 

Voldemort began to smile his evil, hollow grin again, his foul lips twisting to produce an even more horrifying face then usual. "So. The mighty Harry Potter is defeated," he taunted as he quickly walked towards Harry. His voice rang with a victorious song. "You fool. How did you hope that you, only a student, could conquer me, Lord of Magic?" He raised his long arm, pointed his wand, and slowly, ever so slowly, pronounced the word "_Crucio_."

The wash of anguish coursed through Harry's veins like a furnace. His very insides were being eaten away by the poison of a thousand stinging scorpions, striking again and again, all over his skin, which felt as if it was being peeled off agonizingly, exposing his raw flesh to the world. He would have been on the ground in spasms had he not been bound still. 

Voldemort raised his wand, lifting away both of the curses. Harry collapsed, but was ready with a return. "_Expelliarmus_!" Harry yelled out the word, and lifting his hand, waiting to catch the wand that was now rushing to him like a missile. But before it had even gotten ten meters from the hand of its owner when it stopped in mid air, rotated, and shot back to Voldemort, who caught it and moved into attack position. 

"The wand return spell. Never leave home without it," the black figure cackled, then, with a powerful Banishing spell, threw Harry back several meters to the ground. "_Expelliarmus_!" he shrieked, and Harry's wand shot right into his open palm. "Die! _Avada Kedavra!!!!_"

Harry spun on the ground, just missing the red bolt of magic energy. "Time for a surprise, Riddle," he mumbled as he pulled out his secret weapon. For this final duel, Ron Weasely had allowed Harry to borrow his own wand, just in case something like this situation came up. While still rolling in the sand, Harry pointed his wand right at Voldemort and quietly said, "_Accio _Boot!"

Voldemort's large leather boot ripped right off his leg, knocking the evil man to the ground with a thud. As soon as his opponent was down, Harry Summoned the real goal: his wand. Both objects came right to Harry, who discarded the boot, and prepared for a new attack.

Voldemort was furious with anger. "_Avada Kedavra!_" he screamed, but Harry ducked under that one, too. Voldemort hissed in frustration. Potter was refusing to die!

Harry seized the moment and yelled at the top of his lungs "_Fulmen_!" A bolt of brilliant white lightning exploded out of his wand, hitting Voldemort right in the chest. The crackling bolt forked out from Harry's wand, turning blue as the huge electrical charge pulsed into Voldemort's body, which was convulsing and writhing in the sand. As Harry watched the awful scene, he thought to himself, "This spell cannot be any less painful than the Cruciatus. Is it any worse morally?" As he thought about the ethics of his actions, Voldemort managed to block the spell and deflect the deadly beams of power. He then Banished the unexpecting Harry back through the air, ending the lightning spell.

Harry hit the ground hard. He felt his left arm snap beneath his weight. A wave of pain climbed up his arm and began pounding in his head. He looked up to see Voldemort still on the ground, recovering from the magical blast of electricity. He had to take this time, now!

In a loud, clear voice, Harry called out, "_Ventus Maximus!_" 

The earth seemed to begin shaking. The few wisps of cloud above the duelers appeared to hang for a few moments, as if suspended by a thread that was unraveling. Then the spell hit. A massive wind tore onto the scene with the force of a thousand locomotives. The sand flew up in all directions, ripping out the small plants and rolling even the biggest boulders away. The clouds shot like cannonballs into the distance. Harry, as the caster of the spell, was unaffected, but Voldemort was thrown like a rag doll. The sound was unbearable; Harry put his hands over his ears, trying to block out the scream of the wind. _"Finis!_" he screamed out, but he didn't hear anything. The counter-spell worked, however, and the wind instantly ceased, dropping with a crash everything that had been blown into the air. A pouring rain of plant shreds, small rocks, and tons of sand slammed to the ground, flattening Harry. 

He tried to move, but with no success. He was trapped.


End file.
